This great video from Jay Leno’s Garage the other day features Montana-based Legacy Classic Trucks and their restomod 6×6 Dodge Powerwagon. Restomods, as you may know, are classic cars or trucks that have updated mechanicals. This truck is powered by a 4-liter Cummins 4-cylinder diesel with mountains of torque. Such a nice truck…

I apologize for the radio silence the past few months. I’d like to get the WCXC ball rolling again with series of posts about last spring’s Overland Expo 2015. I had initially invited my good friend Greg from gadmachine to go with me. When a scheduling conflict came up, Greg, always up for adventure, accepted our press pass (kindly provided by Overland Expo) and headed to Arizona solo. He had a great time, met some great people, and took the fantastic photos you see here.

I’ll cover the Expo in four posts: Trucks, Products, Camp Vibes, and the Obstacle Course.

Next year’s Overland Expo will be held May 20–22, 2016 in Flagstaff, Arizona. The event offers a chance to work on your overland driving skills, attend workshops and classes, watch films and demos, and offers a tangible air of camaraderie. They’re already taking reservations. If you’re interested, click here.

I’ve been on a bit of a Pinzgauer kick lately. Here’s a video showing a body-off look at the drivetrain, how 4-wheel-drive is engaged, how the differentials lock, and how the axles articulate. It’s interesting to see how this top-level 4×4 works.

This is just gratuitous hooniganism. An 800 hp trophy truck tears through the streets of Ensenada, Mexico. Squealing tires, girls in bikinis, jumps: all the tropes are there. That suspension though… the way it soaks up every ledge and bump, that’s the highlight for me.

Did you know that in the late 1970s Steyr-Puch contemplated bringing the Pinzgauer to the U.S.? I recently found this June, 1978, Car and Driver article in which a young David E. Davis, Jr. (who later went on to found Automobile magazine) writes about driving a Pinzgauer 710K as a year-long test vehicle.

At the time, the estimated base price was $30,000 ($108,928 in 2014 dollars). As far as I’ve been able to find out, they were never imported to the U.S. when new.

It’s interesting to read a first-hand report of the driving experience, having never had a chance to get behind the wheel myself. See the scans of the article after the jump or link to them at the source site below.

Here’s a well-shot video of Pinzgauer 710M negotiating the Defense Mine / Cummings Cutoff trail in south-eastern California’s Panamint Valley. The driver doesn’t always choose the best lines, and the trail is pretty tough, but the ability of the vehicle is unfailing. It’s amazing to see what these trucks can do.

This video explains a bit about the Pinzgauer’s central tube chassis which keeps the vehicle torsionally stiff and its center of gravity low. It dates from between 2000 and 2005 when the rights to the Pinzgauer were sold to Automotive Technik Ltd. in the UK.

If you’re interested in a used Hummer but don’t want to pay $30k–$70k for a civilian H1 model, a government-issued Humvee could be the way to go. The website GOV Planet currently lists 100+ AM General Humvees to be auctioned off around the country. The opening bid on all of them is $10,000.

They’re all 20+ years old and do look pretty bare bones. But who needs a fancy leather interior, if you’re just going to be overlanding and camping?

The site does make a point to mention that the trucks are for “Off-road use only,” though the veracity of that claim was debated in the comments of the Reddit post where I found the link. That said, caveat emptor.